(Maricopa) Maricopa High SchoolEnglish Teacher Ms. Aidan Balt has been chosen as a Teacher Fellow for the 2016-2017 Arizona Hope Street Group Teacher Fellowship in order to provide leadership in education policy design and implementation.

The Arizona Hope Street Group Teacher Fellowship is a nonpartisan program that provides a group of diverse public school teachers--who are chosen through a rigorous selection process--with skills focused on peer and community relationship building, moderating peer focus groups, and communication strategies. Fellows’ competency development leads to meaningful opportunities for teachers to inform policy decisions. Hope Street Group launched the program with great success in Kentucky in 2013, replicating it in Hawai'i in 2014, and North Carolina and Tennessee in 2015. Arizona and Utah have both recently joined this work in 2017.

“I applied for this fellowship because I believe it will allow me the opportunity to create partnerships that impact my educational system on a local and state level,” Aidan Balt stated. “Education is only one piece of the puzzle and Hope Street is using data, research, and intersectional fields to improve how we educate youth. I view myself in the same way; I am one small puzzle piece looking to have a bigger impact on the profession I love.”

Aidan Balt joins 26 other Arizona Teacher Fellows and thousands of teachers across the state to better inform policy design and implementation. Aidan Balt continues, “Teacher engagement has the power to change everything! Education is critical; it is the great equalizer. When teachers are engaged, they have the power to impact how far the reach of public education is and can be.”

Hope Street Group is a national organization that works to ensure every American will have access to tools and options leading to economic opportunity and prosperity. For more information, visit: www.hopestreetgroup.org